Hundreds of worldwide college students will miss their fall semesters at Ontario’s schools and universities. Some post-secondary establishments say it’s an early ripple impact of Ottawa’s transfer to cap worldwide pupil enrolment and crackdown on the research allow system.
“I hired an agent in India, so I also got the study and work permit recently,” mentioned one second-year pupil at Conestoga School. “I did all the process myself and the college helped me regarding all the processes, how to apply for the study permit and work placements, so no issue regarding that.”
That course of is probably not as seamless going ahead.
In January, the federal authorities started tightening insurance policies round worldwide college students.
Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller mentioned, in a convention on the time: “Some of these students have experienced serious challenges navigating life in Canada.”
The cap was just lately dropped by an extra 10 per cent.
Submit-secondary colleges in Ontario at the moment are beginning to really feel the influence of these modifications.
Quite a few college students, with plans to review in Waterloo Area, shall be lacking their fall semester as a result of their research permits haven’t but been accredited.
“There’s sort of a quota that the schools have, in regards to accepting applications or students for their school,” mentioned Moumita Chakraborty, a regulated Canadian immigration guide. “With a lot of these changes, we can see why there is an extensive amount of students waiting for a decision.”
reached out to Conestoga School to learn the way lots of their college students have been affected.
“Conestoga currently has approximately 1,400 international students who have deferred fall enrolment to the winter 2025 term,” they mentioned in an announcement. “These deferrals may be the result of visa delays. The college recognizes the challenges these students may face as they adjust their plans and arrival dates. We will work with them closely to ensure they have housing and needed support services for the winter term.”
It continued: “This fall we had more than 400 beds still available to our students. In 2024-25, the college will invest approximately $78 million on domestic and international student support services that include health and wellness programs, food security and nutrition programs, and housing and employment supports.”
The College of Waterloo mentioned a variety of its college students have additionally needed to delay the beginning of their research.
In an announcement to , they mentioned: “Throughout the sector, Canadian universities together with Waterloo have maintained modest ranges of development of worldwide college students to make sure those that do enroll are nicely supported and profitable. Nonetheless, the latest resolution by the Canadian authorities to cut back worldwide undergraduate allocations in 2024 and past will prohibit the flexibility for universities throughout the sector to keep up enrollment ranges and will exacerbate monetary pressures for these establishments.
Roughly 10 per cent of our first-year worldwide pupil cohort has requested to defer their research attributable to visa-related delays. We count on to have precise figures of our fall 2024 worldwide pupil cohort to return later this fall.”
Immigration consultants recommending worldwide college students submit their purposes early.
“When we’re submitting an application for a study permit, you want to have at least five or six months in your hand to make sure that you don’t have to go through the deferral process,” Chakraborty mentioned.
The modifications additionally require college students coming to Canada to have not less than $20,000 of their financial institution accounts to assist guarantee they’ve the monetary means to assist themselves.
reached out to the College of Guelph and Wilfrid Laurier College to search out out if college students there could be lacking their fall semester. They didn’t reply by our deadline. additionally reached out to the workplace of Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller in regards to the delays, however didn’t hear again.
